February

First week of February Second week of February Third week of February

__Monday 2/25__

 * ===Today will be a Structured Reading day for periods 6 and 8.===
 * ===For periods 1, 2, and 5, students will finish presenting and go over/hand in their 7/7 paragraphs.===
 * ===We will show a clip from Elizabethtown showing the Lorraine Motel and the Civil Rights Museum below it.===
 * ===Periods 6 and 8 are ahead and will enjoy a day of personal reading.===

__Tuesday 2/26__

 * ===Today begins the Poetry Unit!!===
 * ===Mr. Pursel will recite a Margaret Walker's poem from the Civil Rights Movement.===
 * ===The students will journal the following things:===
 * ===Poetry is...===
 * ===Poetry is written by/using...===
 * ===My opinion of poetry is...===
 * ===The students will share their responses with a partner and then with the class. Using the students' responses, we will create a definition of poetry for our class.===
 * ===Charles Ghigna is a celebrated poet and author. We will take a look at his definition of poetry.===
 * ===Students will compare and contrast our class definition with Charles Ghigna's definition of poetry.===
 * ===For homework: Ask 2 adults what their favorite poem/poet is. Bring in a copy of their favorite poem (do a Google search to find it). Bring in your favorite poems if you have one.===

__Wednesday 2/27__

 * ===Review yesterday's lesson on "What is Poetry?"===
 * ===The class will read through The Tips for Reading Poetry.===
 * ===We will read an [|Introduction to Poetry] by Billy Collins.===
 * ===We'll complete an exercise that will teach the students to read poetry following the punctuation--not the line breaks.===
 * ===**While using The Tips and Running the Chairs, the students will re-read //Introduction to Poetry// in pairs.**===

**__Thursday 2/28__**

 * ===**There will be a review of yesterday's lesson on reading poetry.**===
 * ===**I will then introduce the class to Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins and his [|Poetry 180 Project.]**===
 * ===**We will then read Poem #2 entitled [|Sidekicks]//.//**===
 * **For homework: Students will answer the following questions:**
 * **What does the Poet Laureate seek to do? What is the Poet Laureate?**
 * **Who is the current Poet Laureate?**
 * **Who was the first Poet Laureate?**
 * **Who decides the next Poet Laureate?**
 * **What does the Poet Laureate get paid?**
 * __Friday 2/29__**
 * **Riddle Day!!!**
 * **We'll go over the homework from yesterday.**
 * **In groups, the students will read and try to answer 4 riddle poems. They will then find the literary elements in the poems.**
 * **As a class, we will learn how to create our own ORIGINAL RIDDLE POEM!!!**
 * **For homework: Students will then create their own riddle poem based on the given criteria.**